It Comes From Above
by CommanderCatbug
Summary: Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some? Some are Chloe Jones, survivor of "The Snap Heard 'Round the Universe". Half of the world's population has disappeared, including her younger sister Michelle Jones and both of her parents. Now she's living alone, trying to find a job, live through community college, and well…maybe she's learning to wield a sword.


"We're almost free!" I yell as I spin around in the middle of the crowded New York sidewalk. Glory's laughter joins my yelling in the air. But there's nothing from Tara, who's probably looking around nervously at all the people passing by. Are these people staring? Probably. Do I care? Definitely not. Only a few weeks left and I'll be a high school graduate. It's intoxicating knowledge I just can't get enough of.

A hand lands on my arm, and it's Tara's because of course it is. She always gets so nervous when Glory and I act wild. It's not like we'll ever even see any of these people again, so I don't get what the big deal is. But I stop nonetheless. No one needs her getting all worked up and anxious again. Lunch was enough of that for one day.

Glory slings her arm over Tara's shoulders and lets out an oversized, joking huff. "Tare-bear, you need to pull that stick outta your ass. Everything's so serious with you. You're already into your fancyass college; learn to live a little, yeah?"

Well, Tara huffs back and hers sounds more like the real deal. "Acceptances can get pulled." Her wide blue eyes swing over to me and her lip quivers. "Can't they, CJ?"

I shrug in response and sling my arm over her shoulders on the other side. "Who can say? The Illuminati running your future prison work in mysterious ways. At least, that's what I hear." My grin is devilish as Glory and I lock eyes. "Wonder if you'll end up being a virgin sacrifice to some Skull and Bones cult there."

"Shut _up_!" Tara squeals, trying to wiggle our arms off of her petite frame. But we hold on for dear life as we start laughing our asses off. "I'm not going to be sacrificed! Everyone there is perfectly nice!"

Leaning close, I whisper to her, "That's what they _want _you to think. What's that saying about honey and vinegar, Bear?" The only thing that causes me to pull away is that our threesome almost runs into a rushing businessman with coffee in his hand. Is that a lipstick mark on the rim? Interesting…

"Just because you're going to that West Coast hippie school and Glo is joining that tech firm right out of the gate, there's no reason to hate on my Ivy League dreams," she protests, even as a little smile crawls onto her face. Glory and I high-five triumphantly.

And then our trio bumps into someone else and we kind of fall back a little and I end up looking up with a scowl. "Hey, dude, what the - " _Oh shit. _Yeah, so we just ran into Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. And they're in exercise gear. Holy shit. This is...surreal? Probably the right word.

Tara starts panic babbling like she always does. "Ohmygosh Mister Stark! I'm so sorry! We just weren't looking where we were going and my friends were busy making jokes and we would _never _intentionally crash into someone, especially not you, and are you okay? Is your arc reactor okay? I'm so so -"

Tony Stark holds his hand up to us and there's this smirk on his face. And Pepper's behind us looking concerned and I think Tara's going to melt into the concrete. "We're fine, kids. Shouldn't you be in school or something? I don't think they hold recess in Central Park."

I scowl at him. People always said that he was a bit aloof, and I know one of my sister's friends works with him but...rude. "We're 18, jerk. Get out of our way."

My friends shoot me freaked looks but Tony just laughs and steps out of the way. So does Pepper. With my head held high, I storm past them, trying to not think about how many bridges I could have burned just then and there. And because my arm is still around Tara, her and Glory end up trailing behind me, whispering a little too loud for my comfort.

"Holy crap, Ceej, that was Tony Stark!" Glory says, eyes all bright and excitable. "You just called Tony Stark a jerk!"

"He called us children. It was the only proper reaction," I reply.

She swings her head back around to look at Tony and Pepper. "They're kissing! Aw that's so - oh my fuck what the hell is that?"

Tara and I turn around too and watch this weird guy step out of an orange circular firework. He starts talking and Tony and Pepper look freaked out and then...some other guy walks out of the firework? And he's hugging Tony and I think that's Bruce Banner and what the holy hell is happening right now?

"_Superheroes._" Even just breathing out the word, Glory's true fangirl nature is evident in every letter. "Superheroes right in front of us!"

"We live in New York," I remind her, even as I stand there staring at the whole interaction, "There are probably heroes around us all the time. Some of them are just better at hiding their identities than others." Although that press conference when Tony Stark had announced himself as Iron Man _was _pretty badass.

"It's still cool!"

We watch as the three men walk back into the firework and it disappears. No trace or anything. Pepper looks kind of stunned and pulls out her cellphone, probably to call a driver or something? I don't know. But honestly, none of this is our business so.

"We should get going. We'll miss the ice cream and we _can't _miss free ice cream, guys. This is our year!"

Glory pouts but Tara nods so I know we'll be back on our mission any second. We'd somehow managed to convince Tara that the best thing to do today would be to skip out early and head to our favorite ice cream shop downtown. They were having a free scoop deal today, the same day every year, and this was basically our last chance to attend it all together.

So we finally keep walking, chatting away about the homework our teachers have decided to pile on us just weeks before summer vacation. And then? The sky starts to fall around us. Just another fucking day in New York City.

In the distance, a giant hula hoop-looking spaceship starts descending into the blue sky. Awesome. If weird lizard-looking things start flying out like in that invasion a couple of years ago? I am writing an angry letter to the Avengers if we don't all die.

People are running in every direction, as if that's going to help. If aliens want to kill us, they're going to kill us. Sure, I'm freaking out, too, but I'm honestly also pretty fascinated by the whole thing. My family had been out of town during the invasion so I lowkey really want to see an alien.

Tara and Glory are yelling and tugging on my hands but they're having a hard time moving me. I'm frozen still, watching the ship get lower and lower in the sky. Any moment something could come out of it. And damn if I don't want to see that. But Glory slaps me and I snap out of my stupor and allow myself to start running with them. Where we're going, I'm not sure. I'll just let them lead the way while I wildly turn my head, hoping to catch even a single glimpse of our invaders.

The sky doesn't fall for long. Because, again, this is New York. Nothing stays the same here. The giant alien hula hoop only stays in the atmosphere for about as long as it takes us to run the rest of the way to the ice cream shop. People are still freaking out around us, including Tara and Glory themselves, but I keep my most neutral expression on. One of us has to be calm in the middle of crisis.

My phone's blowing up with text messages from my classmates and my parents. Nothing from my sister, though. So I hit her name in my contacts and hold the phone to my ear with slightly baited breath. She'd been on a field trip with her class today. Who knows where they were at just this moment?

Michelle answers the phone and it sounds like hell's breaking loose on her side of the call. "Hey, C," she drawls, coolly unaffected as ever. My chest swells with pride and relief. "Giant hula hoop?"

"Giant hula hoop," I confirm, letting the corners of my mouth tick up. "You okay?"

"Yeah. We were on the bridge. You?"

Someone in her background yells - "What the hell just happened?!" - and I chuckle.

"Ice cream. Emack and Bolio's."

She chuckles, too, because of course I'm getting ice cream in the middle of an alien invasion. My ice cream addiction is well-documented.

We tell each other to be safe and hang up. Now I have to take care of my friends, basically my adoptive sisters at this point in our lives. "Your families okay?" I ask as they each hang up. They both nod, but Tara's starting to tear up so I wrap her in my arms.

"What - what was that?" she hiccups as she tries not to fully break down.

"Nothing Earth's Mightiest can't take care of," I assure her.

The chaos of the shop is starting to calm down and people start filtering out. Probably heading home to check on loved ones. That's where we'll be heading soon. But first...ice cream. Nothing, not even the literal apocalypse, could keep me from my rum raisin, thank you very much.

* * *

**A/N: **_Oh my god how long has it been since I posted a work? Too long. I hope you all enjoy the first (and hopefully shortest) chapter of this new fic. Chloe's my little baby and I have hella inspiration for her so hopefully I'll be posting chapters pretty frequently. See you soon!_


End file.
